O’Naturals, the country’s first natural and organic quick-service restaurant chain, has begun operations in New York City and is poised to do the same in cafeterias and kiosks across the U.S
As a result of a partnership announced earlier this year between O’Naturals and Compass Group, the world’s largest foodservice company, an O’Naturals location is now serving diners at American Express headquarters at the World Financial Center, near Ground Zero in New York City.
The menu includes flatbread sandwiches, soups, tossed salads, and Asian noodles. Additional menu items at other locations include pizza, kids’ meals, fresh baked goods and, where permitted, micro-brewed beer and wine. Ingredients are natural, organic, local or wild.
The Manhattan site is the second location in a Compass Group client location, after a successful pilot program at Timberland Corporation in New Hampshire, says Jay Friedlander, O’Naturals COO. “We have a dozen more locations in the works at universities, and in corporate offices and hospitals in about seven states,” he adds.
O’Naturals was the brainchild of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm’s President and CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg. A frequent traveler and soccer coach, Hirshberg and his wife, Meg, felt held hostage by fast food outlets, until Hirshberg and partner Mac McCabe created the O’Naturals concept.
O’Naturals currently has three company-owned locations: Portland and Falmouth, ME; and Acton, MA, with franchise locations in Wichita, KS and Orlando, FL and other locations underway in South and North Carolina.
